The Fated Dance
by Aria Saeryen
Summary: Inspired by a dream I had of what might have happened after Kristyn left the Ballet World. The story of the Ballet World, Katerina, the Snow Queen, and what happened afterward with Giselle and Odette. Happy endings for Giselle and Odette! Chapter 4 is up!
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

_Katerina never expected to see another world._

_ All she knew was that she could never dance. She knew she had no talent for ballet. Her older sister, Natasha, far surpassed her. She was jealous; she was not going to hide that fact, but she mostly spent her days dreaming of what could never be, rather than trying to show her sister up. Katerina loved her sister._

_ Then one day, something completely unexpected happened._

_ Katerina was wandering through the woods and found a pair of abandoned ballet slippers. They were pink, and just about her size. She suddenly felt a great longing – one that she could not explain at all._

_ The girl took a deep breath and took off her black Mary Janes. Then, she put on the pink shoes._

_ At once, she found herself standing perfectly on point, something she had never been able to do. The next second brought even more surprise, as she saw that the world around her had completely changed – she now stood in a beautiful garden next to a fountain, and a girl of fourteen with lavender hair stood beside the fountain._

_ Curious, Katerina approached her._

_ She gasped. Aside from the hair color, the girl looked exactly like she did! The girl looked surprised, too._

_ "You…look exactly as I do!" the girl told Katerina. "Except your hair, it's…brown, and mine –"_

_ She seemed too shocked to continue._

_ Katerina then learned that the girl was named Kalmia. She also had an older sister, named Nieve. Kalmia was apparently a princess of the crazy land. She had beautiful pink ballet shoes just like Katerina's, and her tutu of sea foam green was embroidered with lovely yellow flowers. Upon her head she wore a crown of flowers._

_ Katerina and Kalmia quickly became friends. To her delight, Katerina found she could dance perfectly while in this land. She even met the reclusive Nieve, who didn't seem to happy to see her. There was one thing Katerina noticed about the older princess: she was as icy and cold as her sister was warm and cheerful. Nieve's tutu was ice blue, embroidered with snowflakes, and her hair was white, with a tiara of icicles woven into it. She somewhat reminded Katerina of her own sister, but Natasha wasn't nearly as cold as this._

_ Katerina kept the pink shoes with her, and when she began to grow out of them, Kalmia made her new ones. She even made pairs for Katerina's sister and friends, but none of them believed her. When Katerina grew up and began working as a seamstress at her sister's ballet studio, Kalmia gave her shoes of all sizes, so any student of hers could visit._

_ Though Katerina never did forget Kalmia, her attention was turned away from her and toward the ballet students. And one fateful day, in Kalmia's world, her sister Nieve became queen of the land, and ruled with a heart of ice. She locked her sister in the dungeons of her new ice castle, and froze anyone who didn't do what she wanted into a statue of ice._

_ However, not everyone believed Nieve to be a tyrant. Many snow faeries served her, and some of them saw her as just, for those faeries' hearts were as frozen as the Queen's. And one faery troop in particular adored her. Nieve had gone around the land to find young maidens who had been scorned by their lovers. She froze the young men and transformed the girls into immortal faeries. The girls, in gratitude, became Nieve's most loyal servants. Stories of them began to spread, and they came to be known as the Wilis._

_ The people of the land feared Nieve's reign would last forever. But, as fate would have it, the first rays of the dawn were breaking through the snowy night sky, though none noticed._

**AN: A bit of trivia. "Nieve" is the Spanish word for "snow". "Kalmia" is a type of flower. The Wilis were originally ghosts of scorned women in the _Giselle _ballet (they've been changed since Giselle survives in this version).**


	2. Prophecy

"Your Majesty!"

Queen Nieve stood up. A snow faery messenger had arrived.

"What is it?" she said icily.

"It's your sister, ma'am!"

"_What_."

Nieve's tone sounded like an icicle falling and shattering on a sheet of cold ice.

"You know very well that I do not have time to deal with _her_. See to it that she knows her place!"

The faery shuddered.

"Do I make myself clear?" Nieve said softly, staring right into the faery's eyes.

"It's…just…" the faery squeaked.

"Just _what_?" Nieve demanded coldly.

"She…she says she foresees…something…" the faery said, trembling with fear.

"_Take me to her_."

* * *

Kalmia watched through the bars of ice as the faery and her sister approached.

"Hello, Nieve," she said.

"Hello, Kalmia," Nieve replied without any trace of her sister's warmth. "Now tell me….what did you see?"

Kalmia said nothing. She didn't want anything to happen to the two girls she had seen in her vision.

"Tell me now," said Nieve. "Or else…"

She gestured in the faery messenger's direction.

Kalmia gasped softly. She would have to say something if she didn't want that innocent faery to freeze.

"All right. I see that if you continue to rule this way, you will fall."

"Kalmia, I know you're hiding something," Nieve responded. "Tell me _everything_."

Her hand was still pointed at the faery.

Kalmia sighed.

"There are two young maidens of thirteen who, in three years' time, will together end your reign over this land."

"And what are their names?"

A tear fell from Kalmia's right eye. Did she have to say?

"I'm waiting!" Nieve declared.

Kalmia still said nothing.

"Very well," Nieve said. She turned toward the faery.

"No! Giselle!" screamed Kalmia.

Nieve turned. "What was that?"

"One of them is called Giselle," Kalmia said.

"And the other?"

"…Odette."

Without any words of gratitude, Nieve turned and left, followed by the faery.

* * *

The Wilis stood in reverence, gathered around Nieve's throne.

"Find _Giselle_ and _Odette_," Nieve demanded of them. "Then report back to me and tell me all you can."


	3. Giselle's Curse

_She _was beautiful. _She _was perfect. _She _was everything Eira wanted to be – a good dancer, and loved.

Giselle.

Eira's heart burned with jealousy. She had once had a childhood friend like this girl seemed to. And he'd been a farm boy, too. Except…he had left her. Left her for some dancer, until the great and benevolent Queen Nieve had turned him to ice, like he deserved, and appointed her to the Queen's highest court of snow faeries, the Wilis.

Nieve had sent Eira to spy on this girl, but as Eira observed her, she scoffed. Her, defeat the Snow Queen? Not a chance. She was like a little butterfly, graceful and delicate. She would not stand a chance against Queen Nieve. Eira chuckled softly. What a fool Kalmia was!

"_Eira_…"

Eira turned at the sound of the seething voice.

It was Myrtha, the leader of the Wilis; the first one Nieve had recruited.

"_What _have you been doing, Eira?!" Myrtha said slowly and coldly. "Messing around?"

"I'm sorry, I just –"

"What could have caused you to stare at a farm girl for an hour, Eira?!"

Eira felt her face grow hot with envy.

"I despise her, Myrtha. Look at her. So happy, so beloved, so _perfect_. She is exactly like the one he left me for. I hope our great and benevolent Queen Nieve freezes her into a rock!"

"Hush, now," Myrtha said softly. "I am sure our queen will do something to freeze the flower before it blooms and overthrows her. We must report back to Nieve."

The pair of them returned to Nieve's ice palace that she had built in place of the old one Katerina had adored.

"What of Giselle?" Nieve asked.

Eira immediately told of how the young maiden's dancing and gladness had sparked envy.

"I have no fear that she can do anything to you, but I implore Your Majesty to rid my eyes of the sight of her!" she shrieked.

"Ah, Eira," Nieve replied. "Do not fear. I doubt she will be dancing much longer."

In fact…

Nieve congratulated herself on her own cleverness. Perhaps the very fact that the girl spent her days dancing might be her downfall! Oh, how brilliant of her!

She closed her eyes and muttered something. A bolt of icy blue appeared between her hands. In the middle of it, an orb of sapphire color fading to white as it neared the center began to grow.

When the orb was big enough that she held it in her hands, the Snow Queen opened her eyes and gave a loud "HA!"

The orb whizzed out of the castle and into the distance.

"What did you just do?" Myrtha asked.

"It's a curse," Nieve explained delightedly. "When it hits Giselle, her heart will grow weak. No doubt that so much dancing will cause her to collapse before sunrise on her sixteenth birthday! Ha!"

"And what about the other girl, Odette?" added Eira.

"My sister said both of them would bring about my defeat. With one gone, it won't happen."

**Thank you, OJSZ for the nice review. Trivia time! Myrtha is the original name of the leader of the Wilis from the "Giselle" ballet.**


	4. Kidnapping

On that very day, Giselle had not stopped dancing. She and Hilarion, her best friend at the time, were dancing together as they watched the cows graze.

"It's beautiful," the young girl whispered looking up at the pale blue sky tinted with the orange color of the setting sun.

Hilarion nodded. He liked Giselle quite a bit, but the romantic stuff just didn't strike him as hard as it did her.

The girl leaned forward into an arabesque as both of them began dancing again.

Suddenly, a sapphire blue orb with a white center whizzed toward the pair out of nowhere.

"Look out!" Giselle screamed, flinging herself in front of Hilarion. When the orb began to head for her, she screamed "Hilarion, duck!" But though both of them got themselves out of the orb's reach, it abruptly changed it course and hit Giselle squarely in the chest.

Giselle uttered a muffled squeal and trembled. It felt as though liquid ice was spreading from her heart to her whole being. It was colder than any winter she had remembered.

And then it stopped.

"Giselle? Are you okay?" Hilarion asked.

She quivered again.

"Yeah, yeah, I just felt a chill…let's dance."

They started to dance again when Giselle suddenly stumbled. She gasped, placing her hand quickly on her chest.

"Giselle!" Hilarion cried.

"My…heart…" the girl gasped. "It's beating so quickly…"

* * *

From that day on, Giselle's mother forbade her to dance due to her suddenly weakened heart. It did not stop her, however.

In another kingdom, right next to the one where Giselle lived, Odette was having her own misfortunes. Unlike in Giselle's case, Queen Nieve had not intervened to stop Odette from growing up to dethrone her. Odette was a princess from another land who had many sisters, her being the oldest.

Long ago, before she or Giselle had been born, a princess named Leda had been named heir to her kingdom. It was decreed that she must marry to be eligible for the crown. A young count named Rothbart was greedy for power and courted the young princess, but she refused him for a gardener named Cygnus. The jealous Count Rothbart swore to make the lives of Leda and Cygnus miserable.

Many years later, Queen Leda and Prince Cygnus had many children, all girls. When Princess Odette was thirteen, Rothbart, who had studied black magic for the sole purpose of revenge upon Cygnus and Leda, he snuck into the garden in the form of a black owl.

"Look!" Princess Cisne exclaimed, pointing at the owl in a tree.

The other princesses joined her and gazed in wonder.

"That's not possible!" declared Princess Celadonia. "Owls only fly at night!"

"And _yet_," teased Princess Evelina.

A looming shadow appeared over the three of them. They all began to shudder.

Suddenly, the owl swooped from the tree branch and landed on the ground, transforming into his true form.

"A sorcerer!" Cisne squealed.

Odette and the rest of the princesses rushed toward their sisters.

"Cisne, get away from him!" Odette shouted.

But her warning came too late.

"You shall become great voiceless birds and leave this place forever!" Rothbart cackled, firing bolts of magic at them.

The daughters of Queen Leda looked at each other – and themselves – in horror. They honked in protest. Only they could understand the begs and pleas of their sisters.

With more black magic being thrown at them, they hurried to another land, as he had turned back into an owl and chased them to the border, making it clear that he would attack them if they were to return.

* * *

When Cygnus and Leda noticed that it was sunset and their daughters still hadn't returned, they grew sick with worry. It was then that Rothbart appeared before them and announced that they had been transformed into swans and would never come back.

"You should have married me, dear Leda," Rothbart said with a smirk. "Then maybe you wouldn't be crying."

"_Leave_, _scoundrel_!" Cygnus ordered, drawing his sword. Rothbart gasped and flew away.

Leda and Cygnus searched far and wide for their daughters. It was two years before they finally found them settled in a valley. Each of them cried for the seven months they spent with their transformed daughters. By the end of it, the tears of the Queen and her consort had become a beautiful, glistening blue lake. After they returned home, the princesses glided on it, and that night, the love in their parents' tears had half-lifted their curse. From sunset until dawn, the princesses would transform back into girls. They never went home for fear of Rothbart.

* * *

Three years later, Queen Nieve was growing restless. That worthless girl Giselle had not succumbed to the curse, and any minute now she might be marching through the Snow Queen's palace halls to dethrone her. Nieve had to do something!

"Eira!" she ordered. "Bring me my ice crystal!"

Eira, who had been trying to repair a broken mirror with her ice magic, dropped it and hastened to obey her queen.

Nieve slumped in her icy throne. She was having the worst luck. Not only was Giselle still dancing, but the other girl (whose name Nieve had forgotten) was probably all ready to join her.

She had been complaining in her head when she heard the clink of frozen toeshoes on the ground. Eira was back with a gleaming white diamond in her hands.

"Well done," Nieve said, taking the jewel from her servant. "Now leave me."

Eira did as she was told.

Nieve mumbled some magic words, and the diamond began to vibrate softly. She let it go. It levitated above the ground.

"Show me Giselle!" the Snow Queen commanded.

The diamond showed a beautiful meadow in which a small village sat. Giselle was dancing, though with more caution than she had been when Eira had spied on her three years ago. Something in the distance caught Nieve's eye.

"Show me the travelers nearby!" she commanded.

The diamond's focus moved away from Giselle and toward a hunting party. There were horses, and astride them were noblemen. Leading them was clearly a prince, who was carrying no bow, but a mirror, in which he admired himself.

Nieve chuckled. This was perfect! Surely a shock of seeing royalty would be too much for Giselle. She sent a blizzard toward the party.

* * *

Prince Albrecht, the leader of the hunting party, suddenly felt a chill.

"Blizzard!" screamed a nobleman. "Your highness, we must go back!"

Albrecht was stunned. This didn't feel right. It was springtime, so what was a blizzard doing here?

"I'm so sorry, Your Highness," a nobleman further away said. "The way back is blocked by the blizzard. There's no way we'll be able to see."

Albrecht was an ambitious man, and he was not about to give up. His eyes scanned the horizon.

"There!" he finally called, pointing at a patch of blue sky.

The prince and his men rode swiftly to it, winding up in Giselle's field.

Giselle gasped. Who were they?

"Excuse me, sir, but who might you be?" she asked.

The prince just gazed at her. She was beautiful. He had never believed in love at first sight, but she was starting to change his mind.

"I'm…um…"

He couldn't reveal his true name. She would know that he was in an arranged marriage already. If he could get her to love him in return, he might be able to persuade his parents to break it off. _If _he could win her heart.

"Loys," he finally answered.

"I'm Giselle," she replied.

* * *

"She doesn't know he is a prince?!" Nieve shrieked, lashing out at the ice crystal.

"Careful, Your Majesty!" Myrtha cautioned, getting it away from her.

"Get her image out of my _sight_!" the queen screamed.

Unfortunately for Nieve, Giselle wasn't coming at all close to finding out the truth about "Loys". And to her added dismay, the Snow Queen was observing love blossoming between the two. At first, it was just an annoyance, but it was clear that Giselle was physically getting stronger. It seemed that both of them genuinely loved one another, for Nieve could sense that her curse was weakening. Only true love could break an evil curse.

One night, Nieve was struck with great fear. She had been spying on Albrecht through her ice crystal. He was planning to propose to Giselle. If he did, and she accepted, than Nieve's curse would be no more and she would be dethroned.

It was time that the Snow Queen took matters into her own hands.

* * *

A tired Giselle awoke before her eyes opened. It couldn't be morning yet. Everything was way too dark behind her eyelids. Her room had a big window that let in the first rays of the sun.

That was odd. Why was it so hard? True, she was no princess, but her bed was usually comfortable. And the temperature…brrr. It was _spring_, and a warm spring at that.

Wearily, Giselle opened her eyes.

She screamed, her heart rate increasing with the shock. She was in an ice cold place with glistening blue walls, and – were those _jail bars_? What was she doing in prison?

"Are you alright, my dear?"

Giselle sat up, looking for the source of the voice.

Sitting in another corner of the cell was a woman with short lavender shoulder-length hair. She was wearing a long dress of sea foam green adorned with many flowers, though the flowers were clearly withering.

"Who are you?" Giselle asked.

"My name is Kalmia," the woman replied. "I am Nieve's younger sister. She locked me up in here a long time ago. What is your name, my child?"

"…Giselle."

Kalmia shed a single tear.

"Giselle…I'm so sorry. It's my fault you're a prisoner. I told Nieve of a prophecy I had, in which I foresaw you and another girl dethrone her. I would not have said a thing, except my sister threatened to harm her messenger."

"Wait!" said another voice. "Giselle? You're here now, too?"

Giselle turned. A girl with dark brown hair in a bun and a purple tutu decorated with feathers had been speaking to her.

"This is Odette," Kalmia explained. "She's the other girl I had the prophecy about."

"I'm sorry Giselle," Odette said through tears. "I hoped she wouldn't capture you. I was cursed by a sorcerer three years ago, and now my sisters are without me…"

Giselle crawled over to her and put one hand on her shoulder. Though she tried to comfort Odette, the future looked bleak to her. There seemed to be no way Nieve's reign would end now.

Kalmia, however, still had one more ray of hope.


End file.
